$327.46 Tithe
_400.00 Utilities
_400.00 Grocery Envelope
_400.00 Medical Fund
__75.00 Household Envelope
_280.00 Chiropractor Monthly Family Plan
_111.08 Internet
__36.00 Garbage
_100.00 Car Insurance Fund
__50.00 Car Maintenance Envelope
_100.00 Gas Money
_100.00 Blow Money Adults
_120.00 Allowances Kids
_600.00 Citi
_100.00 Clothing Fund
------------
3199.54 Total Money Out

$327.36 Tithe
$400.00 Grocery Envelope
$400.00 Medical Fund
__75.00 Household Envelope
$100.00 Car Insurance Fund
$372.41 Autopays
$148.75 Citi Card
__61.75 Life Insurance DH
__60.46 Life Insurance Me
_100.00 Blow Money Adults
_120.00 Allowances Kids
--------------
3244.56 Total Money Out

There is a little money left from the paycheck, but I intend to use it to buy DD some flip flops.

$327.41 Tithe
_400.00 Utilities
_400.00 Grocery Envelope
_389.51 Citi
__75.00 Household Envelope
_280.00 Monthly Family Chiropractor Plan
_111.08 Internet
__36.00 Garbage Fund
__50.00 Car Maintenance Envelope
_100.00 Gas Money Envelope
_100.00 Adults Blow Money
_120.00 Allowances Kids
__65.00 Fishing License
_800.00 Monster Mom Loan
-----------
$3254.00 Total Money Out

I've reworked the June budget and now that we've gotten the Citi card taken care of except the $389.51 I will pay off on the 14th, and assuming we don't do anything stupid between now and the end of the month, we should be able to pay $1800 off on the loan to Mom. I am taking the Citi card out of my wallet. I am not going to do this stupid thing again. Thank goodness we did not have to pay interest, but I am still mad at myself for letting that happen and not paying attention. I know I was in a lot of pain and it was just easier to send DH for food, but urgh. We wasted so much money.

We are working hard this weekend to get that freezer stash up and going so we never fall back on convenience buying like that the next time I am sick and injured. I did purchase a new electric skillet today even if it meant I had to set foot in the Bullseye store. I hate shopping there. It is worse than WalMart.

We also picked up four small evaporative coolers, one for each person in the family. When the wildfires hit this summer and we can't open the windows due to all the smoke coming from B.C. and California, we won't roast like last year. This has been a planned purchase. My MIL has one and it works a treat. We picked a couple 3 packs and a 1 pk of Scrub Daddies, also, which a type of sponge/scrubber that works really well and won't scratch up ceramic or non-stick surfaces.

I also bought a cooling rack that is big enough to cool 24 English muffins, biscuits, and cookies on, or 12 pancakes or hamburger buns at once. This was also a planned for purchase. I have decided to hold off on the tortilla maker for now. I can make them by hand, it is just a little more time consuming.

We used the debit card to pay for everything. That credit card is banned for anything but autopays from now on.

We did a running around errands trip today, plus a few grocery items. We started out at Office Max where I spent $23.35 out of the household budget for a ten pack of Post-it notes, plus some colored Post-it flags for marking book pages. I use post it notes for just about everything.

The flags I needed to mark the pages in a recipe book. DH found the Pressure Oven Cookbook at MIL's house last night, but it is a totally unorganized book. Nothing is sorted into categories and it isn't in alphabetical order or anything. So I am going through and marking anything I want to make and each category gets its own color.

Chicken will be red, beef will be blue, pork will be orange, lamb will be purple, veggies will be green, deserts will be blue, and casseroles will be pink. Then at least I can know what pages to check. I may put a corresponding dot next to each dish in the table of contents, too. On the bright side there are only about 10 recipes out of 126 that don't appeal to me.

After Office Max we went to Dollar Tree where I spent $6.35 and got:

6 foil baking pans (2 pk)
2 bottles of a clean pizza sauce to try
1 place mat (son eats at his desk on a place mat and his old one was falling apart)

Then we swung over to Spice Hut to get some ground white pepper, but they were out. I left my name and number for them to call me when they have it back in stock. It can be hard to find white peppercorns.

Then I did a quick fill-in trip to the food co-op and spent $65.37 there. Not all of that as grocery, some was household.

For grocery I got:

6 ct duck eggs
12 ct pastured chicken eggs
1 loaf of Avenue French bread
1 loaf of Naked potato bread
4 Japanese sweet potatoes
1 big box (with 4 little ones) of local strawberries
1 lb of Belgioioso American Grana cheese (a type of Parmesan that is extra long aged

So that part was $49.64.

Then I got 2 bottles of liquid African black soap in the pump bottles (unscented) for $17.37 out of the household budget.

After that we swung into the Walgreens on that side of town to pick up glasses cleaning wipes because our store was out. I only spent $1.95 because I had $10 worth of points that I cashed in.

Finally, I went so Safeway because they had boneless skinless chicken thighs on sale for $1.99/lb. I spent $45.92 there to stock up on some more cheap chicken.

I got 6 value packs of the chicken
1 5 lb pack of cut watermelon

I may go back tomorrow and get another 6 packs. I have $50 or $60 left in the grocery budget. I'm not sure. I'd have to look. Payday is a week away so I may need to leave some money for milk and more bread.

Anyway, a lot of errands, but I got a lot of the little things done that I've been putting off.

We blew it this month on the credit card. Badly. I did manage to pay it off with no interest, but our spending was just out of control. I bought clothes for the kids, 2 pairs of shoes for DD (she's been wearing slippers and flip flops because her feet were too swollen and we had to find her extra extra wide shoes which cost a lot), 1 pair of shoes and a lightweight sweatshirt for me, a new pressure washer because the old one died (we did get a refund from Lowe's, but it wasn't enough for a new one since the last one was bought on winter clearance), too many takeout meals when I threw out my back and couldn't cook, the primer, paint, wood, and screws for the new garden bed, my medical bills (which exceeded how much we had in the medical fund) since we hadn't hit the family out of pocket max yet (I think we have now), and then I purchased some things that are being discontinued at Thrive Life like butter powder and honey crystals.

Next month will be pretty spendy, too, (already spent, just is on the next statement) so I doubt I will make any extra loan payments, just the main one. Ugh. I've got to get this back under control. You know, this is why Dave Ramsey says to get rid of all your credit cards, not keep just one. *sighs* I will try to get it out of the budget and not touch the EF, but that may not be possible.

$357.89 Tithe
_400.00 Grocery Envelope
_500.00 Medical Fund
__75.00 Household Envelope
_100.00 Blow Money Adults
_105.00 Allowances Kids
1806.96 Citi
----------------
3344.85 Total Money Out

We had an additional $220 from MIL that we added into the budget for this two week pay cycle. It was reimbursement stuff so wasn't added into the tithe. But it does throw the numbers off a little bit, so I had to make a note of it on my budget spreadsheet. I always try to do that when this sort of thing comes up.

$327.36 Tithe
_400.00 Grocery Envelope
_300.00 Medical Fund
__75.00 Household Envelope
1000.00 Citi (Autopays and a lot of crap we shouldn't have bought last month)
__61.74 Life Insurance DH
__60.46 Life Insurance Me
__50.00 Blow Money Adults
1000.00 Monster Mom Loan Payment
_120.00 Allowaces Kids
_125.75 License plate tabs for the van
---------
3520.31 Total Money Out

$327.36 Tithe
_400.00 Utilities
_400.00 Grocery Envelope
_500.00 Medical Fund
__75.00 Household Envelope
_280.00 Monthly Family Chiropractic Plan
_108.91 Internet
__36.00 Garbage Fund
_100.00 Car Insurance Fund
__50.00 Car Maintenance Envelope
_100.00 Gas Money
_100.00 Blow Money Adults
_120.00 Allowances Kids
_200.00 Clothing Envelope
__81.00 Truck License Tabs
_395.00 Credit Card
---------------
3273.27 Total Money Out

I went and did the two week grocery shop, but I also stocked up on a lot of chicken. I went to four stores in one day and boy is my body telling me I overdid it today. Although it might also have to do with some weeding last night.

Safeway has boneless skinless thighs (and breasts) on sale for $2.99 a pound in my area. I was going to get some bone in skin on chicken elsewhere for 88 cents a pound, but they were all out of it and didn't have more in the back, which was annoying.

It is cheaper to do it myself, but my hands are bugging me and I didn't want to deal with pulling skins off and working the bone out while keeping the most meat possible intact. Since $2.99 is my buy price for boneless/skinless chicken thighs, I bought 8 of them. They were around 4 pounds each. So today we will haul out the Food Saver and divide them up into 8 piece packages and take most of them out to the deep freezer in the garage.

My first stop was Trader Joe's and I spent $96.51. I bought:

2 boxes maple pecan granola cereal
1 chive and onion cream cheese
4 frozen chicken fettuccine Alfredo
4 frozen mac and cheese dinners
2 bags flour tortillas
1 box fish nuggets
3 bags garlic naan bread
1 box peanut butter granola bars
1 bag (of six) large hamburger buns (no soy!)
2 packs Co-Jack cheese sticks
1 4 lb bag organic gold potatoes
1 5 lb bag organic russet potatoes
4 boxes chocolate truffle bars (no soy!)
1 organic Caesar salad kit (they were out of plain romaine)
1 bag organic baby spinach

Our next stop was Fred Meyer were I spent $50.47. I bought:

2 Simply Strawberry lemonades (digital coupon)
2 Simply lemonades (digital coupon)
4 boxes organic fettuccine noodles (cheaper than normal ones on sale)
2 bags English muffins
2 bunches organic green onions
2 organic red onions
6 organic yellow onions
1 bunch organic bananas
4 containers Pringles (on sale 2 for $3)
4 organic lemons
2 organic limes
1 large container cubed watermelon

Then we hustled across the street to Whole Foods where I bought only 4 items, but the meat was expensive. I spent $41.37 and I bought:

1/2 pound of uncured pepperoni
1 pound of uncured sopresatta
1 box organic strawberries
4 strawberry mochi

After that we went to Safeway and spent $145.16 and bought:

4 boxes of organic spaghetti noodles
1 box of organic lasagna noodles
1 big bag of ice
1 1/2 gallon of milk
1 package organic white cheddar cheese slices
1 box of Vital Farms pastured eggs
1 10 count box of cupcakes
8 packages of boneless skinless chicken thighs
2 pounds of wild cod (on sale for $5/lb)
1 pound of Dietz and Watson deli roast beef
1 pound of Dietz and Waston deli homestyle roasted turkey

The total on groceries spent is $333.51. That leaves me with $66.49 in the grocery budget for next week if I need to pick up milk, tortillas, or more deli meat.

I should not have to buy any more noodles for a couple of months as the noodle cupboard is fully stocked. I also don't need to buy any spaghetti sauce for a few months as I finished stocking that up the previous pay period. We eat pasta once a week, because it is fast and easy in the Instant Pot. I have learned how to do penné, bow ties, rotini, spaghetti, and fettuccine all in the Instant Pot and have been pretty pleased with the results.

I like having a three month supply of everything in the house in case of emergency situations. Then of course my extended pantry for six months of food which got us through those 10 months of unemployment a while back. My ultimate goal is a year's supply, but that takes a lot of time to build.

I need to make up a big batch of meatballs again for the freezer and then it will be even easier to just pour and dump the whole thing. I have to get DS to shred the parmesan and romano for me, though. That is the hardest part for my hands. We like it at powder consistency, otherwise I'd use the food processor or salad shooter, but the little cheese mill is all we have for it.

I am thinking about getting an electric cheese mill, but it is around $100. We do eat a lot of powdered cheese, though, and the only way to get it without the anti-caking agents is to do it ourselves. So it might be worth it. I haven't spent the majority of my allowance in ages so there is quite a bit built up in the allowance envelope. Also we have $100 from MIL that we could use to buy it from our anniversary in March. We hadn't figured out what we wanted, though I was thinking about an electric flatbread press for making tortillas and pita bread easier. I need to watch more videos of people using them and see if they are really worth the price. Does anyone here use one?